And that’s a wrap – another IPG Spring Conference over. I was there less than 24 hours but feel like I’ve eaten, drunk, laughed, learned and chatted at least a week’s worth, maybe more. There are now over 600 members of the IPG, from huge players like Bloomsbury down to tiny one-man operations publishing just […]
Continue readingSo far today I have landed at international arrivals at LHR Terminal 3, fluffed up my entry through passport control by getting my glasses hopelessly tangled in my hair and then being unable to read the instructions on the gate, slept in a car on the way home, spent 10 mins at home (just time […]
Continue readingYesterday I had lunch at the magnificent Students Union of Michigan University in Ann Arbor. As we went up the steps an enormous red squirrel bounded across ahead of us, which was an unexpected treat, but then my companion pointed out a small brass plaque on the ground at the top of the steps, marking […]
Continue readingI spent a very enjoyable hour or so this morning with Susan Heaton-Wright: former opera singer and now executive voice coach, and a fellow podcast host. I interviewed her for my podcast and then she interviewed me for hers – Superstar Communicator. I know that sounds ridiculously meta, but it was actually fascinating to come […]
Continue readingSo at last I know where the finish line is. Olympian, businessman, OAP and running legend Ron Hill didn’t go for a run today. ‘Neither did I,’ you might be thinking. ‘And?’ But Ron Hill has been for a run of at least a mile every day for more than 52 years now: 19,032 days, […]
Continue readingI have a new project. (Because my life clearly isn’t busy enough…. Oh.) As suggested by a fellow Fetchie – a member of my wonderful running site, FetchEveryone – I have taken up the challenge to read one book from every year of my life. I’m reading them in sequence, starting with Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five […]
Continue readingI had a board meeting in London this afternoon, and lots of work to do (still ploughing through proposal reviews following the 10-day proposal challenge). It takes a good three hours of travelling time there and back to London, and it was COLD out there. I was sorely tempted to dial in rather than appearing […]
Continue readingI spent 13 years working with Macmillan Publishers on an industrial estate in Basingstoke. It was something of a standing joke within the company – a brutalist office block with a portakabin training room, opposite a Sainsburys depot, just up the road from the Fyffes banana factory. And people think publishing is glamorous. Why Basingstoke? […]
Continue readingAs I write this there’s just over 4 hours to go until the deadline for those in the 10-day business book proposal challenge to submit their finished proposals if they want them to be considered for the prize: a pubishing deal with Practical Inspiration Publishing. So far I’ve had 16 proposals submitted, I suspect we’ll […]
Continue readingApropos of absolutely nothing, I thought I’d share with you a bit of my son’s unique philosophy. He turned 9 this week. He: Being 9 feels very different to being 8. Me: How is it different? He, loftily: I feel wiser. Me: Really? What do you know now you’re 9 that you didn’t know when […]
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